One minute you’re eating your oatmeal, the next minute you’re not. One minute you’re walking down the street, the next minute you’re just another statistic that the world doesn’t want to hear about because there are already far too many statistics. In a letter to James Madison in early 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote - “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” Truer words were never spoken, ...More »

In the documentary 11th Hour, former CIA Director James Woolsey, of all people, makes a very important point with regards to the correlation between consumerism and industrial opportunism and the ability to affect change in a very short period of time given what are traditionally viewed as ‘exceptional circumstances’. Woolsey’s point of reference was the transformation of the US auto industry into an industrial mechanism with which to produce aircraft, tanks, and a variety of other military necessities during the early stages of America’s involvement in ...More »

Well, here I am at the end of the line. One more show and I’m home. Last night I had the good fortune of actually falling asleep just a little after ten. Of course, given my luck, I woke up at 12 and couldn’t get back to sleep until five-thirty. One thing I will say about American television – thank God for HBO. I got to watch two episodes of The Wire, Real Time, and Domino. I’m not entirely proud of that last one, though ...More »

It’s weird to think that I woke up in my own bed this morning but will be performing tonight in another city in another country. It’s only a 30-minute flight away, mind you, but it’s still strange. I took Nyquil at around 8:30 last night and went to bed. This meandering head cold is really, really pissing me off. So tonight will be a rather interesting experiment in under rehearsed hilarity, but I’m sure that it’ll all be fine in the end. The death toll ...More »

I’m going to go on a bit of a tirade, so prepare yourself. Let’s cut the shit and be honest - Muslims blow people up, right? Since September the 11th, and even preceding it, that has been much of the Western world’s perception. Since 9/11, Islam has been attacked by right-wing hacks the world over as being a faith that is steeped in intolerance and hatred. Of course, those same people, even if they’ve read the Qu’ran, usually have zero experience with regards to Muslim cultures. ...More »

There’s no questioning the fact that Israel’s ultimate goal in Gaza is to remove the Hamas led provisional government from power. Hamas doesn’t recognize Israel’s right to exist, which is, of course, an immense problem with regards to the ability to negotiate – that being, no one will meet with them, let alone negotiate with them. So what is the answer? Who, in all of this madness, is willing to be courageous enough to employ the sort of timeless wisdom that takes into account the ...More »

In a recent report released by the Pew Center on the States, America now has the largest prison population in its history, and the largest per capita incarceration rates worldwide. The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said. More »

I was sent a scathing email this morning for posting an Op-Ed piece yesterday that suggested there are similarities with regards to the recent independence of Kosovo and the Kurdish struggle for independence, which is by no means a new notion as far as the Kurdish people are concerned. As many of you are aware, the Turkish armed forces have recently crossed the northern frontier of Iraq in force to engage the PKK, a group that has been internationally labeled as a terrorist organization. Elements ...More »

There are things that you see, and there are things that you do not. For example, we all know that our current government is rather friendly with the Bush Administration. What you might not know, for example, is that we signed an agreement with the United States that allows us, and them, to send troops across the border in the event of an emergency. The problem is, of course, that the United States does not allow foreign commands to direct the actions of their troops. ...More »

In 1994, the world turned its back on Rwanda. In 100 days, some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered while the international community did nothing. The Security Council sold UNAMIR down the river, events in the Balkans taking precedent over one of the most horrific and systematic acts of genocide since the Second World War. But make no mistake; those that did nothing had their reasons. The French were flying some of the individuals involved in the masterminding of the genocide out of the ...More »